A Bowl of Smoking Bishop | Liquor Literacy

With Christmas almost upon us, there’s no better way to celebrate the season than with a festive drink and a classic Christmas tale. In today’s Liquor Literacy, we’re making a drink that couldn’t be more perfect for warming up by the fireplace or, even better, by the Christmas tree.

The Drink

Our Christmas drink is inspired by the one and only Charles Dickens and his Christmas favorite, A Christmas Carol. A Christmas Carol is a staple of my Christmas celebrations. I read it every December, watch movie adaptations and have gone to see it as a play for the last five years. I’ve been soaking in the classic story as much as possible but I’d yet to try the drink mentioned in it, which is why today’s drink is Smoking Bishop. It’s a variation of mulled wine but has a more mild spice flavor than other mulled wines, with more of a focus on the balance between the spice and the bitter orange flavor. 

The History of Smoking Bishop

Smoking Bishop is a member of a group of drinks called the Ecclesiastics that became popular in the 19th century. They were punches with names such as the Pope, the Cardinal, the Archbishop and, of course, the Bishop. Each punch named for the clerical hierarchy was made from a different wine, with the Pope using Burgundy, the Cardinal using Champagne, and Smoking Bishop using port. While the “smoking” part of the drink’s name is fairly obvious (named for the vapors that rise when heating), there are several theories as to where the name Bishop came from. Some say the word “bishop” was actually a code word for port in 19th century England, some say it was named for its purple color that resembled the purple robes of Bishops. Another theory is that it was named because in medieval times, when drank in guildhalls and at university banquets, it was served in a bowl that resembled a Bishop’s mitre. It’s also said that drinking the Ecclesiastics was a religious joke, a drink with a sort of pro-Protestantism and anti-Catholicism tone. The mitre-shaped punch bowl theory can also be turned around—instead of the drink being named for those bowls, some say those bowls were shaped as part of the joke in European countries like Germany and Sweden as a way of laughing at the Church. 

There is a verse from Jonathan Swift’s Verses Made for Fruit Women that references Smoking Bishop, but A Christmas Carol really immortalized it in history and brings readers back to this drink today. Dickens’ use of Smoking Bishop is meant to convey a sense of grandeur that Cratchit would’ve been unused to (drinking cheaper stuff himself) but also a return to the generosity and conviviality shown to us by Fezziwig. As David Wondrich, author of Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl and drinks historian, put it in an NPR article, “I see Bishop as a token of Scrooge’s return to the old England, where the gentlemen took care of their people and the people worked cheerily for the gentlemen.” 

ORANGES by Jonathan Swift

Come buy my fine oranges, sauce for your veal,

And charming, when squeezed in a pot of brown ale;

Well roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup,

They’ll make a sweet bishop when gentlefolks sup.

The Recipe

With a drink as old as Smoking Bishop, there are many, many variations in recipes and process. I couldn’t find many older sources with detailed recipes but I found quite a few modern recipes that differed in several small ways. I read as many as I could, trying to determine what sounded best and not needlessly complicated. Smoking Bishop is a fairly simple drink—two wines, some spices and oranges. I figured I really couldn’t go wrong picking the parts of recipes that sounded the best and creating my own sort of process. Remember, this is just another mulled wine. In the end, it all gets mixed together. 

1 bottle of red wine (750ml)

1 bottle of ruby port (750ml)

1 cup of water

4 oranges

1 grapefruit

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

25 whole cloves 

Notes on the recipe:

When choosing the red wine, pick something not too dry, but not too fruity either. Port wine is pretty sweet but very strong. Since the wines are being spiced and cooked, I didn’t worry about buying anything great and got average, inexpensive bottles. 

Original recipes used Seville oranges, which are quite bitter, but they aren’t always available. To cut the sweetness of the navel oranges I used, I added a grapefruit. You could also use a lemon or two instead. 

You can replace ground ginger with fresh ginger if you choose, or even cut small chunks and let them soak. And of course, your nutmeg needn’t be freshly grated—I just have a lot of whole nutmeg on hand from my Lambswool recipe and decided to use some of it. 

Directions

This is where I went off on my own a bit. A few recipes actually called for letting the red wine and oranges sit in a container for 24 hours (wow) but I couldn’t find anything that said that was the definitive, best way of making it. Some let the spices soak in the wine, some made a reduction of spices and water before adding wine. As you can see, there are many ways to go about making Smoking Bishop. This is my way, which I encourage you to try, but I also think you could try nearly any combination of processes and come out with something that works well as long as the port is added last and not boiled.

Preheat the oven to 300 F degrees.

Slice five holes into each orange and the grapefruit. Stuff the whole cloves into them. 

Bake the oranges and grapefruit for 75 minutes. I flipped mine about 45 minutes into baking and turned the oven up to 350 because they weren’t getting pale and slightly browned as they should’ve. You can start baking them at 350 if you’d like—just keep an eye on them. 

When the oranges and grapefruit are done, let them cool for a few minutes before cutting them in half. Place them in a bowl and pour half the bottle of red wine (not the port) on them. They won’t be covered but they will soak and flavor the wine. Let them sit for a couple of hours if you have it. If not, let them sit while you prepare the other half of the wine. 

Pour the rest of the red wine into a saucepan over low heat with the water, add spices and brown sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Let it sit, still on low, for about half an hour. I was planning on letting mine sit for an hour, but at around 4o minutes it was close to actually boiling, which we don’t want.

In a large saucepan, add the spiced wine mix and the orange-soaked wine. Add the oranges, squeezing in the juice. Pour in all of the port and stir. Let it all heat up, but do not let it boil. Mine took about half an hour to all come together and warm up but I kept a close eye on it. 

Voila! Strain it to remove the cloves and orange pulp and you’re done. If you have a Bishop’s mitre-shaped bowl lying around, now’s the time to bring it out. If for some reason you don’t have an 18th century European guildhall’s serving bowl, average serving bowls and mugs will do just fine. 

 

Pairs Well With

 

A Christmas Carol 

by Charles Dickens

Add to Goodreads

 

Is there any other choice for this than the obvious? I finished my reread of A Christmas Carol last week but I certainly am wishing I’d managed to have a mug of Smoking Bishop to drink along with it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Smoking Bishop went over pretty well. I didn’t put enough importance on a pretty major factor in my own enjoyment of this drink: I don’t like wine. As someone not very familiar with wine in general, it was basically all I could taste. My family liked it and thought the orange flavor was quite bright. The port, while sweet, was strong and warm. While I didn’t absolutely love it the night I made it, the next day I tried it straight out the refrigerator and thought it was much nicer. Sources do say that letting it mature for a few days takes the edge off it and I very much agree.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed drinking the beverage Dickens himself saw fit to end A Christmas Carol with by our Christmas tree. It’s safe to say Smoking Bishop will be made again and may even make an appearance in our Christmas day festivities. 

I hope you all enjoyed learning about the drink mentioned by Dickens and hope you may even try the recipe for yourselves. 

 

“‘A Merry Christmas, Bob!’ said Scrooge with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. ‘A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon over a bowl of smoking bishop, Bob!’”

 

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas, 

Madison